[LWVNM Action] Virginia Becomes The 38th State To Ratify the Equal Rights Amendment
Meredith Machen
mermachen at cybermesa.com
Wed Jan 15 18:30:13 MST 2020
Alice Paul is finally smiling today! Now to get rid of the artificial deadline and objections from Attorney General Barr! No other amendment had a deadline for ratification. We will fight for ratification and against other attempts to defeat women’s equality!
Meredith Machen
505 577 6337
mermachen at cybermesa.com
meredith.machen at gmail.com
*************
LWVUS Urges House and Senate to Remove Ratification Deadline on the Equal Rights Amendment
1/7/2020
LWVUS sent a letter to leadership in the U.S. House and Senate urging them to remove the ratification deadline on the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) by passing S.J. Res. 6 and H.J. Res. 79.
The year 2020 marks significant anniversaries for the League of Women Voters and the ratification of the 19th Amendment. Furthering equality by removing the deadline on the ERA would be a fitting tribute to those that fought so hard to ensure that women had the right to vote 100 years ago.
_____
January 7, 2020
The Honorable Mitch McConnell The Honorable Nancy Pelosi
Majority Leader Speaker
United States Senate United States House of Representatives
S-230 The Capitol H-232 The Capitol
Washington, D.C. 20510 Washington, D.C. 20515
The Honorable Charles Schumer The Honorable Kevin McCarthy
Minority Leader Minority Leader
United States Senate United States House of Representatives
S-221 The Capitol H-204 The Capitol
Washington, D.C. 20510 Washington, D.C. 20515
Re: Passing S.J. Res. 6 and H.J. Res. 79, Removing the ratification deadline on the ERA
Dear Leader McConnell, Leader Schumer, Speaker Pelosi, and Leader McCarthy:
The year 2020 is significant as the United States marks the 100th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th Amendment which gave women the right to vote. Additionally, in February, the League of Women Voters will turn 100 years old. We are an organization born out of the movement to secure voting rights for women. Today, we write with another request to further equality, removing the deadline on the ERA.
The League of Women Voters encourages you to move forward with passage of S.J. Res. 6 and H.J. Res. 79. This resolution will eliminate the deadline for ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA).
Combating Discrimination
Despite the significant legal and legislative advances that have been made in recent decades, women continue to face discrimination on the basis of sex. The symptoms of this systemic discrimination are clear in the ongoing fights against unequal pay, workplace harassment, pregnancy discrimination, domestic violence, and limited access to comprehensive healthcare. It is not enough to treat the symptoms; we must address the root cause of inequality by amending the Constitution.
This month, it is likely that Virginia will be the final and 38th state to ratify the ERA. In order to ensure that the will of the states and ratification rights of the states are respected, Congress must immediately pass H.J. Res. 79 and S.J. Res. 6. This is an important step to ensuring that the efforts building in states across the country are not done in vain and will lead to real change.
Recent Developments
The ERA momentum is not new. In 2018, the ratification by Illinois and Nevada propelled this legislative initiative towards being one state away from achieving the 38-state threshold for ratification. Even if ERA ratification does not pass in VA, eleven out of the 13 states yet to ratify the ERA have introduced legislation to move this forward. Passing H.J. Res. 79 and S.J. Res. 6 and removing the timeline would ensure that work done by state legislatures to move this important amendment forward is not being done for nothing.
The U.S. Supreme Court has upheld the rights of Congress to determine whether an amendment has been ratified in a reasonable time. <https://www.lwv.org/lwvus-urges-house-and-senate-remove-ratifcation-deadline-equal-rights-amendment?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=011520#_edn1> [i] In the ruling, Dillon v. Gloss, the Court noted that there was nothing in the Constitution, constitutional convention, or in state conventions during the original ratification of the Constitution, that provided any clarity on Congress’ ability to set time limits. Instead, the Court determined that congressional authority to impose a time restraint on ratification is implied in the power to determine the mode of ratification. <https://www.lwv.org/lwvus-urges-house-and-senate-remove-ratifcation-deadline-equal-rights-amendment?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=011520#_edn2> [ii] The Court reasoned against the idea that an amendment “once proposed is to be open to ratification for all time, or that ratification in some of the States may be separated from that in others by many years and still be effective.” <https://www.lwv.org/lwvus-urges-house-and-senate-remove-ratifcation-deadline-equal-rights-amendment?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=011520#_edn3> [iii] The Court held that an amendment should be ratified within a “reasonable” and “sufficiently contemporaneous” time frame.
The court further clarified how to properly define the reasonable amount of time for an ratifying an amendment. In Coleman v. Miller <https://www.lwv.org/lwvus-urges-house-and-senate-remove-ratifcation-deadline-equal-rights-amendment?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=011520#_edn4> [iv] the court recognized that upon ratification by three-fourths of the states, Congress has the power to consider the political, social, and economic conditions in considering whether the amendment was ratified in a reasonable amount of time, and whether the amendment is still necessary.
Congress has a clearly established basis for their authority to extend or remove the time limit from the resolving clause of the Equal Right Amendment. The idea of time limits on constitutional amendments is a modern congressional addition to the amendment ratification process. Prior to the twentieth century, there was no discussion of imposing a time constraint on the states’ consideration of a proposed amendment. Congress derives its power to set a time limit from its authority to designate a mode of ratification. <https://www.lwv.org/lwvus-urges-house-and-senate-remove-ratifcation-deadline-equal-rights-amendment?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=011520#_edn5> [v]
In 2017, Nevada became the thirty-sixth state to ratify the ERA. Nevada expressly relied on the logic that “the restricting time limit for the ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment is in the resolving clause and is not part of the amendment which was proposed by Congress and which has been ratified by thirty-five states...having passed a time extension for the Equal Rights Amendment on October 20, 1978, Congress demonstrated that a time limit in a resolving clause may be disregarded if it is not part of the proposed amendment.” <https://www.lwv.org/lwvus-urges-house-and-senate-remove-ratifcation-deadline-equal-rights-amendment?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=011520#_edn6> [vi] The states reasoned that under the precedent set in Dillon and Coleman that Congress has the authority to determine an amendment’s validity after the last state ratifies it. <https://www.lwv.org/lwvus-urges-house-and-senate-remove-ratifcation-deadline-equal-rights-amendment?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=011520#_edn7> [vii] In 2018, Illinois followed a similar logical argument as Nevada with the exceptions that the state questioned the constitutionality of the time limits and stated the need for a constitutional guarantee of equality between the sexes. Both states relied on the location of the time limit in the resolving clause as a basis for the legal viability of their ratification.
Request for Support
H.J. Res 79 and its companion in the U.S. Senate, S.J. Res. 6, are vital to ensuring that final ratification of the ERA is achieved over the course of the next year. As an organization that defends democracy, the League of Women Voters believes that there cannot be a time limit on establishing equality and final ratification of the ERA is needed to ensure equal rights for all regardless of sex or gender. As a country we are on the cusp of a victory for this long-awaited amendment. Congress must do the work to eliminate the timeline, so that when the amendment is fully ratified it can go into effect immediately.
For questions about the League’s support of removing the ratification deadline of the Equal Rights Amendment, please contact Celina Stewart ( <mailto:cstewart at lwv.org> cstewart at lwv.org) or Jessica Jones Capparell (jjones at lwv.org) via email or by phone at (202) 429-1965.
Sincerely,
Chris Carson
President
League of Women Voters of the United States
****
Virginia votes on the Equal Rights Amendment again. And it’s debt-settling time.
The Washington Post,
<https://www.washingtonpost.com/people/petula-dvorak/> Petula Dvorak
Columnist
Jan. 13, 2020 at 3:04 p.m. MST
Virginia has a 100-year-old debt to pay.
And ratifying the Equal Rights Amendment this week would finally settle that account.
This is a debt the Old Dominion owes for arresting, imprisoning and abusing women who protested for their freedom and rights more than 100 years ago.
Though suffrage marches were held across the nation a century ago, it was Virginia that held activists prisoner, in the Women’s Workhouse in Occoquan, for speaking out.
“The suffrage advocates in prison at Occoquan are political prisoners,” Alice Paul, author of the ERA, wrote in the <https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84026749/1917-10-21/ed-1/seq-1/#words=Alice%2BPaul%2BSUFFRAGETTES> Washington Times on Oct. 11, 1917, a few days before she was moved from a D.C. jail to the Virginia prison. “They are not recognized as such, and they will continue to fight for recognition as political prisoners in order that they may have the liberties and privileges accorded to persons who are locked up on account of their political faith.”
AD
Activists outside the Virginia Capitol in February 2018. (Patricia Sullivan/The Washington Post)
Activists outside the Virginia Capitol in February 2018. (Patricia Sullivan/The Washington Post)
(Russian prisoners, the suffragists pointed out back then, were treated better than they were. Weird how the Russians keep popping up, right?)
The suffragists were tortured, beaten, given food crawling with maggots and force-fed through tubes rammed up their noses when they went on a hunger strike.
<https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/retropolis/wp/2017/11/10/night-of-terror-the-suffragists-who-were-beaten-and-tortured-for-seeking-the-vote/?tid=lk_interstitial_manual_10> ‘Night of terror’: The suffragists who were beaten and tortured for seeking the vote
Continued picketing in front of the White House brought the arrest of 33 women from the National Woman’s Party, leading to the infamous <https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/retropolis/wp/2017/11/10/night-of-terror-the-suffragists-who-were-beaten-and-tortured-for-seeking-the-vote/?tid=lk_inline_manual_11> Night of Terror on Nov. 14, 1917, when those women were beaten and tortured all night in the Northern Virginia prison by its male guards. The party’s co-founder, Lucy Burns, had her wrists cuffed high on the bars of her cell, so she had to stand all night. Some were beaten so badly, they were left for dead.
Abu Ghraib on the Occoquan.
So it’s a perfect, historic circle to see that Virginia now has a chance to make up for stifling and damaging the 100-year (and counting) march toward true equality under the Constitution.
House Joint Resolution No. 1 was <http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?201+ful+HJ1+hil> filed
in the Virginia legislature
<http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?201+ful+HJ1+hil> last Wednesday and is on the schedule for Tuesday. If it is ratified, Virginia will become the key 38th state needed to add the amendment to the U.S. Constitution. DONE 1/15/20!!!
<http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?201+ful+HJ1+hil> The ERA has languished for decades. Time to finish this.
<http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?201+ful+HJ1+hil> There is a question, of course, about whether it’s too late — the 38 states needed didn’t all ratify before the 1982 deadline. The Justice Department issued a big no last week on the possibility of the ERA passing so long after the original deadline.
<https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/the-equal-rights-amendment-has-languished-for-decades-virginia-must-put-it-over-the-top/2018/11/29/c454c8f4-f3f0-11e8-80d0-f7e1948d55f4_story.html?tid=lk_interstitial_manual_17> But plenty of activists and legal scholars say that’s up for debate. “This is one opinion, one memo,” said Kati Hornung, coordinator for the VARatifyERA campaign, who spoke to The Washington Post’s Patricia Sullivan outside the Virginia Capitol last week. “The Constitution is enduring.”
<https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/the-equal-rights-amendment-has-languished-for-decades-virginia-must-put-it-over-the-top/2018/11/29/c454c8f4-f3f0-11e8-80d0-f7e1948d55f4_story.html?tid=lk_interstitial_manual_17> So you want to move on to the next (inevitable) question when it comes to the ERA: Do we even need it?
<https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/legal-issues/us-justice-department-says-virginia-action-would-come-too-late-to-ratify-era/2020/01/08/3ebe2642-324f-11ea-9313-6cba89b1b9fb_story.html?tid=lk_inline_manual_20> AD
<https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/legal-issues/us-justice-department-says-virginia-action-would-come-too-late-to-ratify-era/2020/01/08/3ebe2642-324f-11ea-9313-6cba89b1b9fb_story.html?tid=lk_inline_manual_20> Isn’t there a 14th Amendment barring discrimination against anyone, and aren’t there enough laws on the books across the states to help stop discrimination?
<https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/legal-issues/us-justice-department-says-virginia-action-would-come-too-late-to-ratify-era/2020/01/08/3ebe2642-324f-11ea-9313-6cba89b1b9fb_story.html?tid=lk_inline_manual_20> Yes, we still need it; yes, there is a 14th Amendment (which proved ineffective in protecting women when they wanted to vote 100 years ago); and no, there is no law comprehensive enough to protect women across the country.
<https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/legal-issues/us-justice-department-says-virginia-action-would-come-too-late-to-ratify-era/2020/01/08/3ebe2642-324f-11ea-9313-6cba89b1b9fb_story.html?tid=lk_inline_manual_20> 2020 is the year for Virginia to finally ratify the Equal Rights Amendment
<https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/legal-issues/us-justice-department-says-virginia-action-would-come-too-late-to-ratify-era/2020/01/08/3ebe2642-324f-11ea-9313-6cba89b1b9fb_story.html?tid=lk_inline_manual_20> We can look at access to health care, discrimination at work, the staggering wage gap and how all this is related to the criminal underrepresentation of women in politics if you’re still wondering whether our nation continues to have a gender equality problem.
<https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/local-opinions/2020-is-the-year-for-virginia-to-finally-ratify-the-equal-rights-amendment/2019/11/15/b1314f46-0244-11ea-8501-2a7123a38c58_story.html?tid=lk_interstitial_manual_26> But since we started there, let’s go back to prisons for just one example.
<https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/local-opinions/2020-is-the-year-for-virginia-to-finally-ratify-the-equal-rights-amendment/2019/11/15/b1314f46-0244-11ea-8501-2a7123a38c58_story.html?tid=lk_interstitial_manual_26> The number of women being incarcerated is skyrocketing. It’s now eight times what it was in 1980, a rate of growth twice as high as that for men over that time, according to the Sentencing Project.
<https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/local-opinions/2020-is-the-year-for-virginia-to-finally-ratify-the-equal-rights-amendment/2019/11/15/b1314f46-0244-11ea-8501-2a7123a38c58_story.html?tid=lk_interstitial_manual_26> Most prisons, however, are designed for men, from facilities to programming.
<https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/local-opinions/2020-is-the-year-for-virginia-to-finally-ratify-the-equal-rights-amendment/2019/11/15/b1314f46-0244-11ea-8501-2a7123a38c58_story.html?tid=lk_interstitial_manual_26> In some states, male prisoners can get associate’s, bachelor’s and master’s degrees, while women have access to only associate’s degrees, according to Virginia Del. Kaye Kory (D-Fairfax), one of the ERA bill’s sponsors.
<https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/local-opinions/2020-is-the-year-for-virginia-to-finally-ratify-the-equal-rights-amendment/2019/11/15/b1314f46-0244-11ea-8501-2a7123a38c58_story.html?tid=lk_interstitial_manual_26> “The burgeoning number of incarcerated women shines a light on the need for new tools to adapt our systems to meet those needs,” Kory wrote in the Virginian-Pilot in 2018.
<https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/local-opinions/2020-is-the-year-for-virginia-to-finally-ratify-the-equal-rights-amendment/2019/11/15/b1314f46-0244-11ea-8501-2a7123a38c58_story.html?tid=lk_interstitial_manual_26> “The Equal Rights Amendment, if ratified, will prohibit governments and their jails and prisons from discriminating on the basis of sex. It will provide jails and prisons the foundation for adapting new standards required in the treatment of incarcerated women,” Kory wrote.
<https://www.pilotonline.com/opinion/columns/article_33ba2a86-d7a9-11e8-8637-0754b9358ea4.html> This time, however, will be different.
<https://www.pilotonline.com/opinion/columns/article_33ba2a86-d7a9-11e8-8637-0754b9358ea4.html> Virginia voters just gave the state its most female legislature in history — still only 29 percent female, but historic nevertheless.
<https://www.pilotonline.com/opinion/columns/article_33ba2a86-d7a9-11e8-8637-0754b9358ea4.html> And for the first time in 400 years, a woman — Del. Eileen Filler-Corn (D-Fairfax) — is the speaker of the House of Delegates.
<https://www.pilotonline.com/opinion/columns/article_33ba2a86-d7a9-11e8-8637-0754b9358ea4.html> It’s time.
<https://www.pilotonline.com/opinion/columns/article_33ba2a86-d7a9-11e8-8637-0754b9358ea4.html> By ratifying the ERA, Virginia can make good on all that nasty prison business from a century ago.
<https://www.pilotonline.com/opinion/columns/article_33ba2a86-d7a9-11e8-8637-0754b9358ea4.html> This year will also be the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment.
<https://www.pilotonline.com/opinion/columns/article_33ba2a86-d7a9-11e8-8637-0754b9358ea4.html> And as much as people like those big anniversaries, Alice Paul offered her first draft of the ERA to Congress in 1923, and there is no way we should wait until 2023 for this one.
<https://www.pilotonline.com/opinion/columns/article_33ba2a86-d7a9-11e8-8637-0754b9358ea4.html> ***
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